1.) A question for the warrior players:
What are your opinions on the elites? The Juggernaut seems gimmicky to me and I didn't see anyone use it so far.
Is the Battle Standard viable without traits? Does it only revive downed players?

Elementalist is almost in that sweet spot. There are a few things doing a little too much damage, and they generally have too much stain on the base end and the high end. This is because of their access to many different minor heals along with a traited Heal that is on an effective 16 second cooldown. Other then those specific things, I would say Ele is in a good place.

1.) A question for the warrior players:
What are your opinions on the elites? The Juggernaut seems gimmicky to me and I didn't see anyone use it so far.
Is the Battle Standard viable without traits? Does it only revive downed players?

Juggernaut is just that kind of spells that requires a smart use, and we are all bad players at the moment so it will take some more time to find its use (But we already have 2-3 ideas that may become interesting).
Battle standard is awesome without traits and yeah it revives only downed players.

Guardians ... They have a Torch skill that set the player on fire for 10 secs and burns periodically foes around. It does not though mention in the skill tool tip the fire component to self (or foe). Then they have a trait (that is on the precision line I think) which is granting fury when the player is set on fire.
My question is whether the torch skill applies to the trait condition in order to be granted fury, Thanks!

For people like me who know essentially nothing about GW but are considering trying it out (for a whole pile of reasons), perhaps you guys could shed some light on some of the more basic, seemingly obvious information:

In a typical sPvP game, what are the normal roles people play? How many people play each role in a match, and do people swap roles with weapon sets during matches?

Can any profession fill any role in a viable manner, or are there specific professions that are so strong at certain roles that they overshadow the rest?

Is there a basic general strategy for a match (say.. control point A and B, pressure point C to take secondary objectives?) or are the strategies much more dynamic and proactive/reactive?

1. I guess there are two defined "main" roles in a tournament game. Roamer and point holder. (Just like a flag carrier in wsg f.e.) Normally there are at least one of them, but its part of the game to search for new tactics and setups so feel free to create a team with 5 roamer! (joke )
The rest of the team is required to create a synergy with each other, just like a affliction lock and shadow priest do in wow for example.

2. This is the goal of anet . Atm some classes are better in point holding, bursting or anything else than another class and i think it will take a while to come to this point where every profession can fill any role.

3. There will always be a general strategy, if there are points to capture and hold, but you have to change your tactics everytime you'll face a new enemy, because there are so many different ways to achieve his goals.

For people like me who know essentially nothing about GW but are considering trying it out (for a whole pile of reasons), perhaps you guys could shed some light on some of the more basic, seemingly obvious information:

In a typical sPvP game, what are the normal roles people play? How many people play each role in a match, and do people swap roles with weapon sets during matches?

While each team will have their own strategies, what is most commonly found is a 4/1, 3/1/1, or 3/2 splits. Usually there is a 1v1 player who excels at taking a point and countering a single person who comes to take it. This allows the main group to take another point thus giving at least a 2-1 advantage in points held. There can also be a roamer, this individual is usually synergized with the 1v1 role but has tons of mobility so that they can quickly adjust from point to point to aid where needed.

The 3-4 man main body is usually damage dealing with a single support role capable of additional damage.

Most times during a match unless one of your team is dead, roles do not swap from person to person. Situation always dictates of course, but why would you want to send a less capable person to 1v1? Just not as likely.

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Can any profession fill any role in a viable manner, or are there specific professions that are so strong at certain roles that they overshadow the rest?

For the most part any profession can be proficient at any role, but there are definitely classes that excel in certain roles. Ele's and damage, guardians and support, ect. Will a ranger be better than a thief in 1v1? Who knows at this point, but a good ranger can beat an average thief, and vice versa.

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Is there a basic general strategy for a match (say.. control point A and B, pressure point C to take secondary objectives?) or are the strategies much more dynamic and proactive/reactive?

Currently, most teams send 1 to cap closest point while 4 go to mid to attempt cap there. From there, one of the 4 can peal off to tackle other objectives on the map such as mobs/lords/trebs. That 4th man can also go to attempt to back cap the other teams point closest to their base as well.

There is no easy way to summarize all of this as it changes based off of the situation and team you are facing, but I hope this sheds at least a shred of light into your questions.

@Guy_With_A_Question: I feel like you should only be allowed to change weapons and utilities inbetween matches, else it will be really hard to keep track of and it seems like it would hurt it's spectating value (once again, this is my personal opinion). Matches being Bo3 would allow you to adapt and switch around your comp if needed inbetween said rounds, it is far more exciting if a team switches a weapon set for a profession after they lost a round than watching them change it in the middle of the match.

I'm going to answer both of these . Yes I do think GW2 has what it needs to start building as an E-Sport. Right now the foundation is laid, and we have a lot of tools to start building this game. We already have a built in tournament system, along with monthly tournaments. Balance isn't too far off, it is close to a really good state. I would say that this game is also very enjoyable to watch. So with that being said there are obviously going to be some more tools that we need. We will need spectator mode pretty quick, savable templates as well, and of course private servers. I think all these things will serve to help GW2 become a very good E-Sport.

I am going to take a stand here with Izkimar and say that this game is ready for launch but its e-sports scene needs to be further built upon. Delaying a spectator mode will severely hinder big tournament success. It leaves commentators with only YouTube videos to cast, and relies on teams posting multiple perspectives. (We all know 1 perspective is horribly boring). Commentators need to be able to constantly stream their casting practice through the spectator mode as well as be given the proper platform to make it enjoyable to watch.

Another big thing that Izkimar hinted on is the implementation of a template saver. While it is easy to change your spec and loadout, it is not very timely. Having the option such as a duel/tri spec would be perfect so that we can instantly change our gear, traits, and weapon load-outs. Most people currently run the same load-out/spec on every map but I can assure you that will not happen in big time tournaments and we deserve an easier way to change things.

Private servers... Okay so this is going to be a great addition to the game. Not only is this perfect to practice your 5v5, but people will be able to host their own tournaments because of it. Spectator mode will enable these tournaments to take off... and you can see where I can go with that. In the end it helps us choose who we play, and also is just another way to 5v5. Lets be serious, 8v8 hot join is sooo boring and un-productive

Hey guys, i dont know if one of u is playing hunter as main, but i have a few questions!

1. Is the hunter in gw2 playable and necessary in spvp?
2. If first question is answered with Yes then what is his role? Defending base, this mean ONLY strong in 1v1? or also in 3v3, 4v4,...?
3. Is the pet of the hunter a MUST HAVE, like in some situations in WoW, for example especially in 3v3 arena (WoW)?
4.Does he have many support skills for the group, or only dmg like in WoW and some little ccs, like useless frosttrap, firetrap or other traps that can be easily dodged.

Thanks

Anyone else have opinions on the ranger? Still trying to decide between ele or ranger.

I truly believe that in a competitive setting, i.e. tournaments. That weapons and skills should be locked in.

I truly agree with this as well, especially if the game is expected to become a watchable e-sport.

Touching further on this and linking it to the esports question, in my opinion there should/will need to be a way for spectators to be aware of swapping weapon sets and skills in between each match to avoid confusion witnessing these 'behind the scenes' changes that alter gameplay significantly.

I truly believe that in a competitive setting, i.e. tournaments. That weapons and skills should be locked in.

Your second sentence is a bit vague. If I may ask you to elaborate on that, would you prefer it locked as soon as you queue, as soon as you enter the map, or as soon as the match starts? I don't like the idea of a meta where you have to spend the 5 mins of start up changing everything around to counter what they may or may not bring but that's just me.

I would like to hear some opinions on changing weapons and abilities after the game has started. Should that be kept outside of the map or would be it ok to limit it to before the gates open?

This is a really good question. You can change everything but traitpoints, so basicly you can adjust to every situation you will face. You can "counterbuild" right in the middle of the match, so if it comes to the very top skilled guilds in a few months, they will surely switch amuletts/runes/utility skills every minute. I already noticed that having a offensive amulett in your inventory to use it on the NPCs on Forest of Nifhel in order to kill them faster, grants you an advantage already.
I think it should be restricted during the match. People will spend more time switching out things in their inventory than actually playing the game. It adds more depth to the game, but it also favours scripts/makros to instantly swap out defensive equipment to offensive equipment, which would change the entire game to "who can switch his equipment faster".

Based on the current state of the game, which classes you don't think are on par for competitive tournament gameplay and why?

For the most part Necro and Mesmer, but even they have one or two builds that are okay to bring.

Guy_With_A_Question, on 11 August 2012 - 09:22 PM, said:

Your second sentence is a bit vague. If I may ask you to elaborate on that, would you prefer it locked as soon as you queue, as soon as you enter the map, or as soon as the match starts? I don't like the idea of a meta where you have to spend the 5 mins of start up changing everything around to counter what they may or may not bring but that's just me.

As soon as the match starts, I don't think you should be able to change anything. Outside of that, I think everything should be free to change.

Based on the current state of the game, which classes you don't think are on par for competitive tournament gameplay and why?

My token response to this question is always going to be 'It's too soon to tell' at this stage of development. There hasn't been enough stability in both class balance and team composition to get enough exposure to the combinations of professions and traits within those professions in various roles. There's a lot of depth yet to be explored.

That said, in my opinion the classes that seemed to be more specialized as of last test were the mesmer, necro, and thief. They were less effective outside of their 'token' abilities and roles and thus less widely used. However there are significant changes coming to everything and a lot of untried combinations so there is no real weight in mentioning what the 'weakest' classes are at this time.